Sightseeing | Jewish Warsaw
Jewish Warsaw
It’s not by chance POLIN (p.51) was voted Museum of the year 2016 - it’s fantastic. | Photo: Warsaw City Authority
At the time Hitler chose to expand Germany’s territories under the odious excuse of providing ‘living space’ for the German people, Warsaw’s Jewish population numbered 350,000. Neither pogroms nor the occasional boycott of Jewish businesses deterred Jews from settling in the Polish capital and only New York could boast a larger community. Yet within six years Warsaw’s thriving Jewish scene was all but wiped out, with over 90% perishing either in the Warsaw Ghetto or the gas chambers of Treblinka extermination camp. It is estimated that some 15,000 Jews survived the war hiding out on the Aryan side. Although anti-Semitism was by no means rare, Poland was seen as a relative safe haven, and it drew settlers forced into flight by more discriminatory regimes elsewhere. By the inter-war years the Jewish population had made significant contributions to the social, political and cultural fabric of Poland. Following World War 2, much of the remaining Jewish population chose to emigrate to the U.S., British mandate of Palestine (taking an active part in the creation of Israel) and other parts of the world. Some that remained would be forced out in the 1968 political crisis, the local community bearing the brunt of fallout in relations between Israel and the Soviet Union over the 1967 Six-Day War, and as a result of internal struggles amongst factions of the Polish 50
Communist Party. Today, Warsaw’s Jewish population is estimated to stand around 2,000, however, efforts have been put into honouring the city’s Jewish heritage and reintroducing Jewish culture - most notably the opening of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in 2014. Here we list some places connected to the current day community and places worth visiting.
Jewish Historical Institute A chilling recollection of Polish Jewry. This amazing building (which survived the war, but still bears the scars) houses exhibits relating to secular and religious Jewish life in the country from its beginnings to annihilation during WWII and beyond. As well as an excellent bookshop, the institute’s museum, opened in 1948, features temporary exhibitions and a particularly moving permanent exhibition titled ‘What we were unable to shout out to the world’, dedicated to the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto and its creators, the Oneg Shabbat group. This is their record. A must see.QE‑5, ul. Tłomackie 3/5, MRatusz Arsenał, tel. (+48) 22 827 92 21, www.jhi.pl. Open 09:00-18:00; Tue 09:00-20:00; Fri 09:00-16:00; Sun 10:00-18:00; closed Sat. Admission 15/10zł. Mon free. ENG Guided tours cost 40zł (400zł for groups of 10+), PL 30zł (300zł for groups of 10+).
